North Korea

Witness Kim Il Sung’s transformation from guerrilla fighter to brutal dictator of North Korea. How did he build the most controlled society on earth and launch a dictatorship that has lasted for three generations?

With undercover footage and firsthand accounts, an inside look at life in Kim Jong-un’s North Korea, one of the world’s most tightly-controlled countries. Dramatic stories of recent defectors show how some North Koreans are defying authority.

This two-part program, presented back-to-back, offers a unique insight into a conflict that saw East confront West, communism challenge liberal democracy and Korean fight Korean in a bloody civil war. It features first-hand accounts and recently discovered original color film to shed light on this historical event.

Outbreak
In the summer of 1950, the people of Korea were trapped between two new superpowers of the postwar world flexing their muscles – the United States and the Soviet Union. On June 25, 1950, the North Korean People’s Army invaded the South. For the next 12 months, the opposing forces of North and South marched up and down the Korean peninsula in a series of attacks and counterattacks until cease-fire negotiations began on July 10, 1951. But the negotiations did not bring an end to the conflict, and the war dragged on for another two years.

Stalemate
While diplomats wrangled and negotiators argued, the fighting in the blighted Korean countryside continued. Stories emerged of atrocities committed by both sides. Amid allegations of retribution and reprisals, one of the major issues at the negotiations was the repatriation of prisoners of war. Eventually, a ceasefire was declared on July 27, 1953.